Slovenia Political Briefing: New European Commission and the Slovenian Candidate Helena Motoh

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Slovenia Political Briefing: New European Commission and the Slovenian Candidate Helena Motoh ISSN: 2560-1601 Vol. 22, No. 1 (SI) Oct 2019 Slovenia political briefing: New European Commission and the Slovenian candidate Helena Motoh 1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11. +36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01 New European Commission and the Slovenian candidate Summary After Ursula von der Leyen was elected the new European Commission President in July 2019, the selection process started for the candidates for the Commissioners of the new European Commission. The selection of the Slovenian candidate was partly surprising due to his background. His future portfolio also became a topic of political debate. Although the conclusions of the hearing are still not final, the first reactions were mostly positive. The final composition of the Commission is still not finalized due to the rejection of several other candidates. History and background: selection of the Slovenian representative in the Juncker Commission When the current European Commission was being composed by Jean Claude Juncker in 2014, one among the candidates proposed by Slovenia was Alenka Bratušek, at that time the Prime Minister. This was seen by many as a highly problematic move, despite the fact that the candidature technically followed the elections Prime Minister Bratušek was only in position until a new government of Miro Cerar was formed in September the same year. The candidature was supported by the President of the European Commission Juncker who allegedly expressed the intent to make Bratušek the vice-president of the Commission, assigning her the energy portfolio. The hearing took place on the 7th of October in front of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Safety. The overall impression given by Bratušek was disappointing, with many Members of the Committees evaluating her presentation and answers as seriously deficient. The vote on her candidature confirmed that, since only 13 votes supported her candidature, while 112 were against it and 2 abstained. After the failure, the vice-president position and the energy portfolio were assigned to the Slovakian Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, while Slovenia had to propose a new candidate. Violeta Bulc, at that time Minister without Portfolio responsible for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion and Deputy Prime Minister in Miro Cerar's 1 government was more successful in the process and became the was Commissioner for Transport in Juncker's Commission. Proces of constructing von der Leyen Commission In July 2019, European Council selected and proposed Ursula von der Leyen to the European Parliament. Seen by many as the surprising decision, the selection of von der Leyen went against the established practice of choosing a previously identified »spitzenkandidats«. Despite this, the selection of von der Leyen was a good compromise, since the proposal of the European Council was confirmed with a majority of 383 votes, slightly above the required 374. She managed to secure support of the three main political groups in the European Parliament, European People's Party (EPP), Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and Renew Europe (consisting of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and European Democratic Party). Some other political parties offered their support in the process. Upon being elected, von der Leyen prolonged the position of Frans Timmermans as the First Vice President and made Margrethe Vestager one of the leading candidates of the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) Vice President as well. She also requested the member states (except for Germany and United Kingdom) to propose candidates for the future commissioners. According to the first schedule, the hearings before the respective committees were scheduled to start on the 30th of September and continue until the 8th of October with the whole process being concluded by a plenary vote in the European Parliament on the 23rd of October. The Commission was then scheduled to start its mandate on the 1st of November. Three candidates for the future European Commissioners, however, were rejected. Hungarian candidate Laszlo Trocsanyi and Romanian candidate Royana Plumb were rejected already in the preliminary procedure due to the conflict of interests. The French candidate Sylvie Goulard did not pass the hearing before the committees, the Internal Market committee and the Industry, Research and Energy committee. 2 Slovenian candidate, the designated portfolio and the reactions In mid-July Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec announced his proposal for the Slovenian commissioner at the European Commission. The candidate was Ambassador Janez Lenarčič, currently the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to the European Union. Since Šarec decided on a non-political candidate, the selection was a considerable shock for the political circles in Slovenia and provoked a lot of criticism. Šarec's arguments were that Lenarčič is an experienced diplomat with a deep knowledge and understanding of the institutions of the European Union and that he was one of the leading representatives of Slovenia during its first presidency of the Council of Europe. Lenarčič was also active in several previous Slovenian governments, a State Secretary in Drnovšek government from 2002 in Janša government from 2006 and in Cerar government from 2014. In 2016 he became the Permanent Representative of the Republic of SLovenia to the EU in Brussels. Lenarčič was confirmed as a candidate by a government vote where only the Ministers from the Social Democrats' Party voted against him. He also was criticized by political parties outside the government as being a safe and unambitious choice due to the negative experience with Bratušek hearing in 2014. The portfolio assigned to him, Crisis Management, also immediately became a topic in media and political circles. Some interpreted this assignment as a reflection of Slovenia’s decision to pick politically less profiled candidate. Many opinions on the assigned portfolio assessed that it is a reflection of Slovenia's relative unimportance within the EU, since it was seen as a peripheral portfolio. Partly the choice was also seen as a result of his career qualifications since Lenarčič was indeed active in these areas of expertise. As a country, Slovenia is also recognized for its efforts establishing the ITF Enhancing Human Security (ITF) organisation. Originally named International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance, this is a humanitarian, non-profit organization established by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in March 1998 with the initial purpose to help Bosnia and Herzegovina in the implementation of the peace agreement and to provide assistance and support in post- conflict rehabilitation. The assigned portfolio was understood as partly a disappointment also when compared to those assigned to the two neighbouring countries, Croatia and Hungary. Croatian candidate Dubravka Šuica was assigned the portfolio of demography and democracy, what was generally interpreted as a more important portfolio, and was also given the position of the (non-executive) vice-president. The Hungarian candidate was initially assigned the portfolio of European 3 Neighbourhood and Enlargement, but this is still unsure due to the rejection of Trócsány before the hearing. Hearing before the Committee Hearing of the commissioner-designate Lenarčič took place on the 2nd of October before the Development Committee and the The Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. The unofficial feedback of the committee members and the president of the Development Committee Tomas Tobe were very positive. The assessment criteria range from overall competence to area-specific and EU specific knowledge to the communication skills. In the hearing, Lenarčič stressed the importance of the key humanitarian principles that AU should also stay true to the values of humanity, neutrality, objectiveness and independence. Candidate stressed three priorities that EU should adhere to in the Crisis Management field: (1) fast and efficient help, (2) strengthening the mechanisms for disaster prevention, (3) enhancing the recognisability of EU crisis management. Conclusions Due to the rejection of three of the Commissioners-designate of the initial commissioner list proposed by Ursula von der Leyen and the subsequent repeating of the process of their selection, the new Commission has not yet passed the vote in EU Parliament as was initially scheduled. The Slovenian candidate, however, seems to have skilfully passed the hearing before the Development Committee and The Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. Despite the initial criticisms of the choice of the candidate and of the portfolio assigned to him, the choice made by the Prime Minister Šarec has proven to be successful. 4 .
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